Pages

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Peter Grant is reaching the end of his probation
with the Metropolitan Police in London and the time has come to choose a role
within that mighty institution. Unfortunately, he seems unsuited to the
exciting life of a detective and he is heavily recommended to move into the
Case Progression Unit, which spends all its days shuffling paperwork. It may be
vitally important to the daily operations of the police force, but he fears
that he might die of boredom.

Fortunately, Peter displays a rather unexpected
talent for seeing the dead when a ghost approaches him and reports witnessing a
strange case of beheading. Rather than gibbering or staying quiet about the
details he gathers from his ghostly informant, Peter reveals his encounter and
is quickly introduced to Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, the head
of a secret branch of the Met that deals with anything decidedly ‘uncanny’. He
soon becomes embroiled in trying to catch a strangely familiar murderer with a
penchant for hitting people with very large sticks. At the same time he needs
to learn to do magic and settle an increasingly heated dispute between Mother
and Father Thames.

* * * * *

I have to admit that one of the advantages of
running a book group is that I can occasionally misuse my power to add
suggestions from my stupidly long ‘To Read’ list. I was aware that Rivers of
London, the English title, had caused quite a stir when it was first published
and the reviews of the subsequent titles had only added to my conviction that I
needed to read this series. Being a serious fan of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files,
I was rather hoping that this would be something similar, only with a English
feel. I was not disappointed.

Peter Grant is a suitably imperfect hero, who
spends too much time thinking about random stuff to really pay attention to the
process of police work. He gets hung up on seemingly trivial details and then
misses the important stuff that seems blazingly obvious to his best friend, and
potential love interest, Leslie. It is no surprise that she ends up working for
the Criminal Investigation Division, whilst Peter seems destined to die by a
thousand paper cuts. The fact that Peter is not perfect makes him much more
appealing and relatable than some heroes, and I certainly appreciated the fact
that Leslie is so much better at being a ‘copper’ than he is: I always like a
bit of gender equality in my reading.

I was also rather pleased that Peter’s abilities
were not as suddenly amazing as those that many heroes display. His progress
with magic is slow and somewhat dangerous as he repeatedly sets fire to things
and keeps destroying his mobile phone. This allows us to accept the fantastical
elements of the storyline much more easily because we take baby steps into this
slightly different version of the real world. Of course there are things that
are incredibly ‘uncanny’ but we are surrounded by mundane details and so they
seem wonderfully possible. However, I rather wish that the editorial team had
put a red pen through much of the seemingly endless lists of travelling
directions. At times the book did almost descend into feeling like a print out
from Google Maps or the recitations of a GPS. They were unnecessarily detailed
and were rather distracting to those of us who do not have an intimate
knowledge of inner London. This is a minor point, though, and my only criticism
of world building that was generally impressive.

The tone of the writing felt very British to me,
with Peter displaying a dry humor and sarcastic turn of phrase that had me
chuckling away as I read. His relationship with Leslie seemed particularly
English, with his forlorn longing and inability to tell her how he actually
feels. This lack of self confidence was rather endearing and helped to
counteract the fantastical elements of his new found abilities and experiences.
However, the very British feel included some cultural references that were
rather obscure and caused slight issues for some of the group. They made the
wise decision to simply go with the flow, though, so it did not detract from
the experience very much.

As the first in a series, there was surprisingly
little time spent on extensive world building and very few times that felt like
we were being subjected to excessive exposition. This left me with many
unanswered questions at the end of the book, although the plotlines reached
satisfying conclusions. It left me wanting to move on through the series to see
what else is revealed, rather than being frustrated by a lack of resolution or
needless teasers.

Whilst some people might be a little uncomfortable
with the descriptions of the strange injuries that we encounter, I heartily
recommend this title to anyone who wants a good Urban Fantasy with a British
feel.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Due to changes in staffing I
have had to alter the date of the meeting in June to the 25th. I
have also added dates for the rest of the year and marked those which have the
earlier start time during our summer hours. You can check out the new schedule
on the Meeting Schedule page above.

Friday, March 20, 2015

Our choices for this month are Phoenix Rising by Pip
Ballantine & Tee Morris and Shades of Milk
& Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal, which is already available on the Red
Nooks. The order has been placed with Barnes &
Noble and they should be added to all the Nook libraries soon.

Phoenix
Rising by Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris

(Steampunk / Fantasy / Mystery)

These are dark
days indeed in Victoria’s England. Londoners are vanishing and then washing up
as corpses on the banks of the river Thames, drained of blood and bone. Yet the
Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences will not allow its agents to investigate.
Fearless Eliza D Braun, however, with her bulletproof corset and disturbing fondness
for dynamite, refuses to let the matter rest and drags her timorous new
partner, Wellington Books along with her into the perilous fray.

For a
malevolent brotherhood is intent upon the enslaving all Britons. And Books and
Braun (he with his encyclopedic brain and she with her remarkable devices) must
get to the roots of a most nefarious plot… or see England fall to the Phoenix.

Shades
of Milk & Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal

(Fantasy / Romance / Historical)

Jane Ellsworth
is a woman ahead of her time in a version of Regency England where the
manipulation of glamour is considered an essential skill for a lady of quality.
But despite the prevalence of magic in everyday life, life still revolve around
vying for the attentions of eligible men

At the ripe old age of twenty-eight, Jane has resigned herself to being
invisible forever. But when her family’s honor is threatened, she finds that
she must push her skills to the limit in order to set things right–and, in the
process, accidentally wanders into a love story of her own.